On Sept. 18, 1993, I did the first class with Kevin Ascolese called “Good Chef, Bad Chef” which was held in the open air Shed 2. In the fall, it could be cold and in the summer it could be roasting, but it was fun. We continued outdoors for the first few years then moved into the Resource Center with heating and air conditioning. (It became big then!) I was fortunate enough to be the chef who lined up my fellow chefs for the first 14 years, and it is wonderful to see it carry on. Between the 2 series per year, times 20 years, the Chefs’ Cooking Class Series has raised approximately $200,000 for the Farmers Market Friends group. Ida Pappert, Deborah Orrill and Don and Polly Waddington were key components to the series success and longevity. ‘Just wanted to pass on a little extra info, and here’s to 20 more years!

What a terrific blast from the past, including the reminder that Shed No. 2 originally had no heat or AC. Can you imagine? No wonder it was so hard to get vendors in there.

Severson was the chef at Dakota’s back in ’93 when the series started; he opened Sevy’s Grill in 1997. He even sent me a copy of the very first chefs’ classes flyer (below). That was early on in the life of Richard Chamberlain‘s steakhouse (just singled out in Leslie Brenner’s “High steaks” blog post as the “hands-down winner, value-wise”).

And look who was executive chef at Baby Routh – Kent Rathbun’s brother, Kevin Rathbun, who has his own restaurant empire in Atlanta. For those of you too young to remember (which is about 80 percent), Baby Routh was the sibling to Stephan Pyles‘ landmark first restaurant Routh Street Cafe.

Today Kevin Garvin holds forth at Neiman Marcus,Jim Mills jumped to management (general manager) at The Houstonian, and David Reardon is executive chef at the Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara.

Lori Holben? She was married to and team-cheffing with David Holben at one of the city’s top rooms, The Riviera, side-by-side in a postage-stamp-size kitchen. Today David lords over Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse.

Those are some great creds and memories to go with them. I’m for 20 more years, too, but in case that’s not in the offing with the new market ownership, catch these classes while you can.

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